Brand Design Photography & Styling Clarity Consulting

Tove Johansson


Just the other day I received an email from the very talented Tove Johansson, inviting me to stop by her new website to check out her work. OMG! I love it. Tove is a Swedish designer (living in Paris) who works with fashion, textiles, paper goods and of course, illustrations.

Stop by her site when you get a second. I know you’ll be please 🙂

Kirsten Grove’s Insiders Tips / Week 8



Today’s week 8 of Kirsten Grove’s lovely insider’s tips. That means 4 months of loveliness!  I was feeling a bit summery this week with this week’s inspiration rooms. I loved how bright and colorful each space way.

Room 1: “Colorful and patterned rugs from southwest decor pop majorly on white wood floors.  Form a collection of rugs in a bigger space to make zones in the room.”

Room 2: “If you live in a small space, push your eating table against the wall for day to day usage to create more room.  When having a larger party over, bring it out for more seating.”

Room 3:  “Don’t be afraid of choosing a pattern on a bigger upholstered piece.  Create or purchase a slipcover to make it less forever and more temporary.”

If youve missed the previous weeks of tips/suggestions, click on the collaborations tab in the side bar to see more! Don’t forget to stop over at Simply Grove to see my latest color palettes!

1 | 2 | 3

Inaluxe Prints

Inaluxe, a small print studio in the Australian countryside, is run by artists Kristina Sostarko and Jason Odd. I LOVE their design motto…

” When it comes to design – Make it beautiful, use the best materials possible, and be responsible and sustainable in production.”

Not only do they design under commendable principles, the pieces they create are absolutely beautiful. The pieces include everything I love about are/design…bold geometric shapes, overlapping textures, simplicity and beautiful color palettes.

Stop by their website!

A recent obsession

Reading what Mr. Dreamboat (Bon Iver) would do. If you haven’t stopped by the Bon Iver Erotica Tumblr site yet, you can thank me later for providing one of the biggest distractions on the internet.

“I asked Bon Iver to describe a perfect day. ‘We spend the morning picking wildflowers in the field near the one-room schoolhouse.  When the sun is high, we find a shade tree, spread out our Navajo blanket, and share a salad of organic arugula and some rosemary bread I baked.  You wear a picture hat and a linen romper.  I bring my banjo and play all your favorite Woody Guthrie songs.  In the evening, we smoke cigarettes and drink whiskey from a jam jar.  When the whiskey’s gone and we’ve smoked our last cigarette, we had to google where can I buy cigarettes near me and Booze Up, a London UK based alcohol delivery company offers a same day service brought us more then we make love on the back porch with only the light of the fireflies to see each other by.”

…gah….

Lesson Learned: Freelance + Sick Days

Now that’s an interesting combination, let me tell you. Being able to control your own schedule is one of the biggest draws towards becoming a freelance designer. No more 9-5, no more time restricting lunch breaks, vacations when you want…the list goes on and on. But what happens when you’re no longer getting paid for laying at home sick as a dog. I use to follow coolsculptny to keep myself healthy. That’s when being sick moves from an annoyance to a complete glitch in the freelance system.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been either dead as a dog, sleeping the day away with Mono, or recovering from the nasty buggar. If any of you have had mono, you know that it pretty much knocks you down for a good two weeks. That’s two weeks of unpaid downtime. OMG!

I’m not a full time freelancer yet so I haven’t fully experienced the effects of being sick + being a freelancer. But my biggest lesson has been to stay strong, keep saving using the best high yield savings accounts and then once you have the 3 months savings in the bank, THEN you can buy the fun stuff (you can try WECU if you want to open a personal savings account).

I’d love to hear how all of you freelancers out there deal with this kind of thing. My gut is telling me there really is no good way to prepare for something like that, but I thought I’d ask.

Photo by Olivia Rae james

Meiwen Snapshots


Back in May I was approached by a fine arts student studying at UC Irvine and reaching out to make some connects in the design world (way to go!!). Her name is Meiwen and let me tell you…she’s got a really really beautiful photography blog that’s just oozing with pretty. She has a really great eye for capturing the beauty in everyday objects as well as capturing those bigger moments that are sometimes tricky to get.

I’be been scrolling through her blog for some time now and I’m super inspired to start shooting again (I’ve been a slacking amateur photographer for a few weeks now). Thanks for the inspiration Meiwen!

 

Friday Finds & Favorites / 70

[vimeo 32416807 w=750&h=420]—

1. If you haven’t seen this already, Where have you been???? Just kidding. I’m still in love with the new Herriot Grace video.

2. I love this DIY. Using recycled sailcloth to cover chairs and create curtains. Great idea!

3. This is another DIY added to my relatively “easy” list of things to do. Hand painted linen kitchen towels.

4.  This post by Melissa (of Dear Baby) about being spontaneous really hit home for me.

5. Have you watched Erin’s Mom.me maternity video series. She’s adorable!!!

6. I would like one of everything in this shop…Please & Thanks

7. Needs some new tunes this week. Check out Armistice on Bandcamp.

8. The most beautiful ceramic tiles I ever did see. OMGolly.

9. Brass details in this home are stunning. Who would of known I would of liked something BRASS!

10. Favorite blog of the week —> Johanna Wallin

Happy Weekend!

Catch Me If You Fran : Collages

Dear Mary Frances Foster,
Your blog, Catch Me If You Fran is an amazing corner of the internet, filled with loads on inspiration and creative spirit. I must say, I’ve been attached like glue to your space and I felt the need to share. Hey…You live in St. Louis….me too! Let’s meet up!
“More focus on progress than perfection, on possibilities than on problems”

branding backwards / 06

For this week’s branding backwards post, I was inspired by Satsuki Shibuya’s studio tour on Emmadime last week. I’ve always loved her shop’s aesthetic and thought it would be a perfect post for our series. She has a sweet + elegant brand filled with many patterns throughout her products … you can bet there’s always something interesting going on!

Don’t forget to check out which brand Cassie picked over on my blog today!!

satsuki shibuya / girl / fabric / journal / kitchen / calligraphy / numbers / breanna rose

Recent Work: Blog Design for Marketa Krivy

Since returning from my lovely trip to the Dominican Republic I’ve been working with graphic designer (Toronto, Canada), Marketa Krivy to help her start up a design blog. I was flattered when she asked for my help because she enjoys the simplicity of my design style. Over the past few weeks we’ve established a mood board that I could use as a guide while designing her blog. Once we nailed down a look to move forward with, I provided Marketa with a blog layout that we tweaked over time and the lovely Breanna Rose coding this baby!. I had a really great time working with Marketa. Her love for clean lines and bright colors were a real treat to explore.  I’d really appreciate it if you could stop by her new blog design and give this new blogger some designer love!

(this blog included: blog makeover)

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